Comprehensive Electric-Thermal Photovoltaic Modeling for Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation (PHILS) Applications

This paper presents a dynamic, electric-thermal model for a photovoltaic (PV) cell that combines electrical and thermal parameters to accurately emulate PV panels in real time for power-hardware-in-the-loop simulation (PHILS). In this model, the irradiance and ambient temperature are used to calculate the PV cell temperature based on a five-layer thermal model. The cell temperature is then used in the electrical model to accurately adjust the PV electrical characteristics. A custom experimental setup is built to test and verify the electrical and thermal characteristics of the PV cell model. This electric-thermal model is validated using experimental data in realistic scenarios. The model is also tested with PHILS using a real-time simulator and a programmable dc power supply to emulate PV power generation under various load changes. The model is well matched to the experimental measurements with an error within 2.4% for the electrical aspects and within 1.5% for the thermal aspects in the tested scenarios.